LGBTQ CELEBRATORY PASSOVER RESOURCE GUIDE

Transcription

1 PASSOVER RESOURCES LGBTQ CELEBRATORY PASSOVER RESOURCE GUIDE At Passover, we retell the story of the Israelites journey to freedom from mitzrayim, a narrow place. Telling the story of this journey, the very act of giving voice to our struggle and our redemption through the ritual of the seder, is at the center of the holiday. In the LGBTQ community, we know how powerful it can be to tell our stories we know that storytelling, and the retelling of our journeys toward freedom, can be a sacred act. Passover is also a time for us to reflect on the mitzrayim we face today: what are the narrow places from which we must emerge? What are the ways in which we must move toward freedom from transphobia and heterosexism in our families, our workplaces, our Jewish communities? What steps do we need to take to bring us farther along on this journey? This Passover, Keshet invites you to celebrate the stories of LGBTQ Jews and reflect on our and our community s journey from mitzrayim to freedom. In this collection, we offer readings and rituals for your seder, reflections on Jewish text, personal stories, and more. We hope that with these resources, you find inspiration for your journey! TOWARD LIBERATION, Catherine Bell National Program Director CONNECT WITH US

2 working for full LGBTQ equality and inclusion in Jewish life.

3 working for full LGBTQ equality and inclusion in Jewish life. A HAGGADAH INSERT ARAMI OVED AVI: A FAMILY COMING OUT JOURNEY* BY ADINA KOCH AND JOANNA WARE Several years ago, Keshet member Adina Koch came out at her family s Passover Seder. In true Koch family fashion, she did so by offering words of Torah. She gathered her whole family together, and shared with them how the Haggadah s retelling of our ancestor s journey from bondage to redemption offered a reminder of the importance of family, liberation, speaking out for justice, and being true to oneself. This Pesach, we offer Adina s words of Torah as a teaching for all of our Seder tables. AND YOU WILL ANSWER AND SAY BEFORE ADONAI YOUR GOD, My father was a wandering Aramean. He descended to Egypt and resided there in small numbers. He became a nation great, powerful and numerous. The Egyptians treated us badly. They persecuted us and put us under hard labor. We cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors. God heard our voice. God saw our persecution, our toil and our oppression. God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with awesome power, signs and wonders. God brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land of milk and honey. Now I have brought the first fruits of this soil, which you, God, gave me. (Deut. 26:5 10) WHEN WE RETURN TO THE STORY OF PESACH YEAR AFTER YEAR, OUR MAGGID (story), we return to a reminder of from where we have come. Our parent wandered. Our ancestor searched for a place to call home; out of which we emerged as a nation and a community. As Jews, we are blessed with a tradition that teaches us to stretch what it means to be family and on all days of the year to welcome the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. The lesson is especially salient on Pesach, as we open our doors and invite all who are hungry to come and eat. Food, however, may not be the only nourishment our bodies and souls are craving. When we recall our slavery in Egypt, so too are we called to notice the oppression in our midst; the Egyptians of our day treat those who are LGBTQ harshly. Those in our LGBTQ community suffer from higher than average rates of abuse, homelessness, harassment,

4 and violence. For some of us, just walking down the street poses a threat to safety that others never need consider. None of us are exempt from being in the role of Egyptian. We may believe we have just cause for persecuting those who are different, we may do so without intent to harm, and we may do so with our silence. Yet our story teaches that it is our responsibility to recognize oppression and cry out for justice. The Torah teaches us that as human beings we are created b tzelem elohim in the image of God. The divine spark is in each one of us, and we each have the power to hear those who cry out and witness their pain, to extend our hands and stretch out our arms to those who are still in a narrow place. Some years it might be us, or the people we love, who need those open arms and a strong hand. Jewish people living in the United States today are in many ways living in a time of milk and honey. While we have our individual and collective struggles and hardships, as a people we are not under the threat our ancestors once lived with. We have a responsibility to use this land, this time and space that we are in, to make fruit from this soil. We honor our tradition and history by standing on the side of justice and fighting for space at the table for the LGBTQ people in our lives and in our communities. For all who are hungry will come and eat on this night with us: the stranger, the friend, and those whose hunger will be sated not by food, but by love, acceptance, justice, and equality in our homes, synagogues, and the world at large. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Many LGBTQ people have chosen family in addition to their families of origin. How do you define your family, and how does that impact your relationship to this text? 2. What lessons do you take from your ancestors journeys? 3. What, other than food, do you have to offer to the stranger in your midst? 4. How can you nurture the souls and well being of LGBTQ people at your Seder table, in your community, and around the world? * Hebrew translates to My ancestor was a wandering Aramean.

5 This DIY event created by Elana Brochin is an opportunity for participants to learn about (and experience) the traditional search for chametz, leavened foods forbidden on Passover. Join together and discuss the ways in which this tradition is meaningful to us individually and communally. Start your Passover preparation in a meaningful way! [read more] Developed by JQ International in collaboration with Hebrew Union College s Institute for Judaism & Sexual Orientation, the JQ International GLBT Passover Haggadah integrates LGBTQ Passover traditions within the spirit of the traditional Passover experience, including an LGBTQ-specific seder plate, the four LGBTQ children, the Prophetess Miriam s Cup, and much more. [read more] Today s plagues may be less obvious or dramatic, but are no less insidious and responsibility for their existence lies on our shoulders. They include: + Apathy in the face of evil + Brutal torture of the helpless + Cruel mockery of the old and the weak + Despair of human goodness + Envy of the joy of others + Falsehood and deception corroding our faith + Greedy theft of earth s resources + Hatred of learning and culture + Instigation of war and aggression + Justice delayed, justice denied, justice mocked shekhinah, soften our hearts and the hearts of our enemies. Help us to dream new paths to freedom, so that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning; so that our singing is never again their wailing. So that our freedom leaves no one orphaned, childless, gasping for air. Rabbi Rachel Barenblat s haggadah also known as The Velveteen Rabbi s Haggadah for Pesach is a thorough resource all on its own, but as an open source haggadah, you, as a reader or participant, are encouraged to help write it anew each year by adding your own material. Some highlights are the Four Daughters, a Kabbalistic interpretation of the four cups of wine, and a reflection on 10 modern plagues (above). Ma Nishtana follows the traditional structure of the Passover Seder. Page through the haggaddah to find additional readings and discussion questions pertaining to LGBTQ identity and life. [read more] In this essay from the Torah Queeries collection, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen parallels the mitzrayim, narrow place, of the Bible with the mitzrayim of one s own body, likening the experience of leaving Egypt to being transgender. [read more] This year we are slaves; next year may we be free. In every generation, we find ourselves in narrow places political oppression, environmental crisis, personal struggles to live up to our own best selves. The seder ritual is a brilliant orchestration of an extended conversation around the central themes of memory and justice and liberation. To which, let us add, whoever expands the doing of the work of tikkun, healing of myself and of society is even more praiseworthy. As another rabbinic statement puts it, lo ha midrash ha-ikkar, ela ha-ma aseh: the telling alone is not enough; it must lead us to act in the world. Read more from The Telling is Not Enough, an essay published in the Torah Queeries series. This exploration of Torah, written by Rabbi Laurence Edwards, delves into the ideas surrounding how we tell the story of Passover. CONNECT WITH US

6 For Jews who are observant, Passover requires a constant struggle to separate leavened from unleavened, inside from outside, permitted from forbidden. The absolute distinctions we impose on our lives at Passover can be a comfort, even if they aren t comfortable. At least we know what s right and what s wrong, what is inside and what is outside, and, most importantly this, the Torah tells us is the whole point of Passover who is us and who is them. But the Torah reminds us that the binary distinctions Passover affirms as the basis of Jewish identity can also be weaponized: the Exodus only happens because a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph decided that no matter how long Jews lived in Egypt, and no matter how much they had contributed to the culture, there was an absolute distinction between Jews and Egyptians that made Jews untrustworthy, disloyal, dangerous. That distinction became the basis for our enslavement in Egypt, just as it has been the basis for anti-semitic actions throughout history. As a transgender Jew a Jew whose gender doesn t readily fit into the binary categories of male and female I have always known that the binary distinctions on which we base identity can hurt as well as help, exclude as well as embrace, lead to oppression as well as liberation. Don t get me wrong: I wasn t against these distinctions, or against the identities that were built upon them. For most of my life, I longed to have that kind of binary-based identity, longed to have a body that fit my female gender identity, longed to build a life as a woman, instead of always having to hide the fact that in a world where everyone was supposed to be either male or female, man or woman, I was somehow both, and neither. But even as a child wishing for the kind of identity everyone else seemed to have, I noticed at Passover that the binary distinctions are hard to maintain. Passover is not only a festival that celebrates and enforces binary distinctions it is also a festival that confronts us with our inability to make messy human reality conform to those distinctions. As maddening and uncomfortable as they can be, for me, the laws of Passover ensure that at least once a year, every observant Jew struggles with a condition of existence that transgender Jews live with and suffer from all the time: the fact that the binary distinctions on which Jews traditionally depend to define ourselves are unworkable simplifications of lives that are too complicated to fit within them. Most Jews do not identify as transgender, but like Joseph, the Egyptian Jew / Jewish Egyptian whose assimilation into Egyptian culture first brought our ancestors to Egypt, in one way or another, all of us are always more than either/or, this or that. This Passover, I hope you will join me in celebrating that. Read more from Dr. Joy Ladin s essay, Passover: Festival of Binaries. Joy Ladin is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. She holds the David and Ruth Guttesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University and serves on the Keshet board. The People of Israel s departure from Israel did not signify equality and freedom for all. Women were still less equal than men, and slavery was still condoned by the Torah. Not everyone who was granted freedom when they left Israel received the same amount of freedom. As we gather to celebrate the story of Passover, it is important that we celebrate the successes of the last year. At the same time, however, it is important that we recognize who is benefiting the most from these successes and who still has the farthest to go. The transgender rights movement is still lagging significantly behind the LGB equality movement. Women, on top of many other obstacles, continue to earn significantly less than their male counterparts. We cannot fight for queer equality without fighting for trans equality and racial equality. As long as women and people with disabilities are oppressed, so too will segments of the queer population be oppressed. As Passover comes and goes, let us pledge to not just fight for the issues that the mainstream LGBTQ movement has prioritized but for equality for all. In just the past year, we have managed to overcome and break down several oppressive institutions, but we cannot stop until all people, regardless of identity, are truly equal in this country. Read more from Jordan Dashow s essay, and explore themes of liberation, intersectionality, and community. CONNECT WITH US